Event-related potentials reveal limited readiness to access phonetic details during word processing in dogs.

ABSTRACT: While dogs have remarkable abilities for social cognition and communication, the number of words they learn to recognize typically remains very low. The reason for this limited capacity is still unclear. We hypothesized that despite their human-like auditory abilities for analysing speech sounds, their word processing capacities might be less ready to access phonetic details. To test this, we developed procedures for non-invasive measurement of event-related potentials (ERPs) for language stimuli in awake dogs (n = 17). Dogs listened to familiar instruction words and phonetically similar and dissimilar nonsense words. We compared two different artefact cleaning procedures on the same data; they led to similar results. An early (200-300 ms; only after one of the cleaning procedures)

SUBMITTER: Magyari L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7813267 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature